The latest adaptation of one of Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh’s books is Filth – a film so filthy that Deborah Ross had to ‘endure’ the film ‘from behind her hands’. But, somewhere amongst the ‘enduring’, she became ‘strangely hooked’, as Bruce Robertson (aka James McAvoy) led her through Edinburgh’s ‘dark underbelly of general horridness’. Filth may be ‘ghastly and unpleasant, but also kind of brilliant’, says Ross. Here’s the trailer:
Breaking Bad started off with mixed reviews and an ‘uncertain future’, as it ‘dumbfounded viewers and critics alike’ – at least according to the economics professor Steffen Huck. But despite all of that, the series went on for 5 seasons, only coming to an end last week. Now that it has ended, Huck explains just what Breaking Bad can teach us about economics – and how Walter White’s choices all make sense to a modern-day economist… well, they did in season one, at least. Here’s his full economic analysis of the series.
In this week’s magazine, Michael Tanner reviewed two operas; one ‘sensationally good’, the other ‘sensationally terrible’. Elektra, at the Royal Opera, has an ‘immense’ musical impact, while Christine Goerke in the lead role helps to make this ‘the finest account’ of the opera. Fidelio, at the ENO, on the other hand, is musically ‘superficial’, with poor enunciation, and some ludicrous costumes. Here’s Andris Nelsons, the conductor of Elektra, talking about his production.
As Lloyd Evans points out, it’s not often that you see Brecht in the West End. But here Brecht is, at the Duchess Theatre, with The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. ‘A warning to America’ about the possibility of ‘a fascist takeover’ – but a warning that was written in a bit of a hurry – the play has, says Evans, little subtlety or finesse. But what it does have is Henry Goodman as Arturo Ui, who distances himself from our ‘comic culture’ of Hitler impersonators, and ‘creates a fresh and convincing portrait of paranoid megalomania’.
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